Making a Mosquito Trap - Great Science Fair Project

Making a Mosquito Trap

Because mosquitoes are attracted to the CO2 we breathe out, I started looking for ideas that used CO2 as the bait for the mosquito trap. I did think of dry ice but it does dissipate fairly quickly.

I found a cached link on Google here. It seems to be active again now. I've rewritten the instructions some and hopefully it will work as well.

They got their information originally from http://tw.class.urlifelinks.com/class/?csid=css000000001173

Thanks to the students for their hard work on this project. I've used some of their photos for illustration. The originals are available here:

Supplies:

• 1 2 liter soda bottle
• a sharp knife
• black paper
• tape
• candy thermometer

Take a 2 liter soda bottle. Cut off the top right below where it starts to narrow for the top.

Make a simple sugar syrup.

Ingredients:

• 1 cup sugar
• 1 cup water
• 2 cups cool water
• 1 tsp. active dry yeast

Directions:

Bring 1 cup of the water to a boil.

Dissolve the sugar into the boiling water.

Once the sugar is dissolved completely, remove the pan from the heat. Stir in 2 cups cool water, stir well.

Check the temperature of the syrup to make sure it is no hotter than 90 degrees F, if hotter, let cool to 90 degrees F, add 1 tsp. active dry yeast, no need to mix. Put syrup in the bottom part of the bottle.